Dan Auerbach: Keep It Hid (V2 Music, 2009)
I’m not the biggest The Black Keys fan out there, but I bought used copy of their Attack & Release album last year and noticed that I can enjoy blues rock to a certain degree. Therefore I decided to give this solo album by Dan Auerbach a chance as well even though I knew that it might not be totally my slice of cheese cake. Not a bad decision, because Keep It Hid is an enjoyable affair. It doesn’t hit the jackpot though. The problem with the bluesy material is that it feels that The Black Keys could make it sound more powerful and dangerous. However, Keep It Hid is more than just bluesy guitars. There’s quite a lot of variation actually and for me the highlights are beautiful ballad When The Night Comes that features wonderful Jessica Lea Mayfield on harmony vocals, folkier Whispered Words (Pretty Lies) that was written by his father and My Last Mistake that has a Fogerty-ish pop sense.
